@mattclarke wrote a post apparently tongue in cheek about getting old people one-way tickets to space rather than having them die in hospital rooms.
Here's Matt's post:
https://peakd.com/stem/@mattclarke/have-we-been-too-dogmatic-about-keeping-astronauts-alive
I initially thought I'd write a comment but I thought it would be a fun post idea.
About 60 million people die every year. Let's say you cram 20 of them into a capsule launched into the lower Earth orbit in tourist class. That means three million launches with old or dying people as payload per year.
A Space-X launch puts out as much carbon dioxide as flying 341 people across the Atlantic. Source
Three million space launches is equivalent to flying a billion people across the Atlantic. About 4.3 billion airline tickets were sold in 2018. Source. A trans-Atlantic journey takes about eight hours. If the average flight is half as long, then you could say that about 2.15 billion trans-Atlantic flight equivalents are done per year. Launching everyone dying into space would thus effectively increase carbon dioxide emissions as much as increasing airline traffic by about 50% would.
The aviation industry is responsible for about 2% of all carbon dioxide emissions globally. Increasing aviation by 50% would thus increase CO2 emissions by only about 1%. Source
Launching the old and decrepit into space would seem to be much more environmentally friendly than I previously thought. Of course, it would bankrupt everyone except for the very wealthy but that's another matter.
This one wasn't satire (a change for me). I'm not suggesting it become the 'new normal', but for those who can afford the price; it could finance a lot of further growth in the industry.
Eventually space elevators will do the same job; but then, we'll get them sooner if we can point to a lot of lucrative use cases.
Thanks for engaging with the idea.
What would the impact be on space debris? Seems like that could be a major issue.
They'd only be up there for the 12 hours; and completely incinerate on the way down, so wouldn't become junk, themselves.
Space junk they might collide with is up just a bit higher, in stable orbit. If it was low enough to hit them, it'd be low enough to have already fallen.
I realise there are some speed complexities. Things going fast enough can be lower and still in stable orbit; but if the lastronauts are the fastest things that low, there shouldn't be any collisions.
Ah so this is really a more extreme version of skydiving?
Yeah. I kinda want to tag James Hetfield; since it's the most Metal thought I've ever had.
Do we launch them before or after death? Before death would be more interesting for the dying, but unless they agree, it would be inhuman. We would also probably need life support or it would be a weird way to go.
If they are already dead, we may as well cremate them first to reduce the weight. I've seen the cremated remains of people (in Korea the family heads down to the crematorium and....I don't really wanna talk about it). The point is, it isn't much and if one was to compress it, it would be very small.
Space X says launch costs are down to $2,720 per kilogram. Let's say you put 1kg of dead person into a tube, it could probably be sent up for 3~4k which is way cheaper than an average burial plot, marker stone, nice urn, etc. Besides, you can get a filmed copy of the launch and just look up inside of having to go to some graveyard.
If they are dead, technically we are already in space, so it would be pointless to send them out of Earth's atmosphere. In my case, I want to be cremated and disposed of in a government/family acceptable manner.
Before death. See @mattclarke's post for details.
I guess the idea would be the same as with some tribal societies whose elderly sailed off never to be seen again. Matt said it would be voluntary. People who opt to die this way rather than in a hospital bed would wear space suits and be able to observe the magnificient view of the Earth beneath them until their orbits degrade and they begin their re-entry into the atmosphere. Before that, the gas mixture given to them would be lowered in oxygen to make them pass out and die before the going gets too hot.
Sending somebody's ashes into space actually sounds like a brilliant idea. There's something solemn about having one's ashes launched into space. Space launches are a majestic sight.
yes, I read about the proposed service somewhere.
Thanks for sharing, i agree with you when you said it will be enviromental friendly.
But the cost and other logistics will really be an hindrance.
I just got to know that avaiation industry emits 2% of CO2. Thank you
xD